Potted American Elms?

I found some American Elm trees lining the break line between my grandfathers yard and the woods, probably the only one on the entire block. I want to take them back to my house and plant them in my yard, possibly raise one or two in a pot.

This one is too large to pot I may transfer it in a pickup truck, how far out should I dig?

This one is small I potted, might make into a bonsai:

This one is in a temporary pot:

I did use a small handful of "biotone" in the soil and sprayed the leafs with "Seven" becuase there was some sort of mite and small brown spots. What can I do to prevent DED if I plant them in my yard, all I have is a beetle to keep away.

Sevin is how it's spelled and people realllllllly need to properly ID the insect or disease then find the product to control it--if at all---A lot of the issues of trees we need to learn to live with it. I could be wrong but I don't beleive sevin works on mites if that's what they were. Svein kills the good insects that feed on mites and gives the mite a little boost in reproduction-------

Sevin is how it's spelled and people realllllllly need to properly ID the insect or disease then find the product to control it--if at all---A lot of the issues of trees we need to learn to live with it. I could be wrong but I don't beleive sevin works on mites if that's what they were. Svein kills the good insects that feed on mites and gives the mite a little boost in reproduction-------

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...Awesome! The trunks are too small for a bark beetle to burrow into anyway.

agree w lorax; put the poison away until you know wtf you are doing with it. could give ya cancer.

the first pic had a 1" tree in the foreground--go after that, this fall. the big one behind, fuggedaboutit--too close to the dogwood (?) behind, too big anyway.

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Too big to move? The 1" junk are not even elms, the smallest one I transplanted is doing the best which I will be turning into a bonsai very slowly.

I think I will continue to hunt and dig up small elms like the small one I potted, and plant them were dead street shade trees have been removed, hope for the best. As you probably already know I am heavily into American Elms, I would like to get into the trunk injection market because no one around here does it but I heard the equipment can be pricey and the chemicals are hard to obtain right now since it is only being distributed by the manufacture itself.

It's been a while...these trees are still kicking around except for the one planted in the ground I cut it down. The larger potted elm is doing really well and I have cut it back twice since the last photo, starting to take on an an umbrella elm shape:

Deff not American, the leaves are too stubby and wide:

The smaller potted elm I did a hard pruning to see if I can Bonsai it (rubber band and sandwich baggie over cut) we will see if it sprouts:

It sprouted out nicely, I actually even cut a few more inches off it! This is not the true way to make bonsai but it will work with some time and a dremel tool, I know it's not American but I need to decifer exactly what it is (possibly a Slippery). The mature bark is starting to puff out, this might turn out nice afterall

It has been comfortably transplanted into a much shorter pot, after it is well established I will get a shallower pot and cut a few large roots toward the bottom. The dirt is bagged sphagnum moss soil from the store mixed with sand for better drainage (1" of crushed rock at the bottom). It has decent taper and flare along with some character with that deadwood spot, I have since planted a variety of moss across 3/4 of the surface...if the moss survives and thrives I will take a new photo:

Why not start with DED resistant elms? Even if you don't want the commercially available cultivars/varieties, go out and find a healthy American elm larger than 24" (preferably with dead/dying trees near by) and make rooted cuttings off of that. It may not be resistant to DED, but it is still alive for some reason...

As for treating: Arbotect is not too hard to come by if you normally deal with treating trees. Do you have a pesticide applicator's license?

Because I am honing my Bonsai skills with practice elms first before I spend money on one...and if it survives then when there are none left outside I have an original all natural version indoors

A 24" elm is barley even susceptible to DED that is why it would still be there, no stronger. Same goes for American chestnuts you will find shooters and coppice stools but that is as far as they make it, moist semi swamp land is where I find them in the woods in New England because they survive with DED if they have a constant water supply. I do however want an original American Elm bonsai if I could ever find some good stock but it's all slippery, etc.

I do not have a licence but my brother works for the power company on the huge power lines and he is licensed but that may only be for pesticides that kill trees not insects and such, he took classes so maybe he does reserve the right to purchase it.

I do not have a licence but my brother works for the power company on the huge power lines and he is licensed but that may only be for pesticides that kill trees not insects and such, he took classes so maybe he does reserve the right to purchase it.

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I assume most states are similar, and require that you have two things:
1) Licensed applicator (as you said your brother is, so if this was the only requirement you might be able to work under him)
1a) That license has to be in the right category - but you recognized that in saying he may only be able to kill trees. (this is not a 3rd requirement, just a clarification of the first!)
2) A licensed and insured company. Doubt his employer is going to want to help on that one...but if you think the market is there, and you want to learn what you need to learn to do it well you could form your own company.

I have also added a new strain to my elm bonsai collection; Wych. It was not easy to find seeing how they do not grow nativley in the US, but I found a Camperdown Elm that's root stock had shot a Scotts Elm (Wych) sucker large enough to spawn new trees in the surrounding area. I found a total of 5 and this was the largest one, the remaining 4 will become Camperdown graft root stock for future Camperdown's

Two months have gone by and it hasn't done a thing it just locked up, what would cause this!?

The large elm that I treated with imidacloprid seems to be killing off beetles well! I counted over 30 dead Japanese Beatles on the surface of the soil inside the pot alone, however there is another pest that is still present. Can anyone tell me what these spots are??

So thanks to my dad he killed my bonsai by using it as an ash tray during the winter season...aszhole

On the bright side the larger elm is doing great, I skipped out on the pesticide this year going to see how much stayed in it's system because last year it killed handfuls of beetles:

I knocked on the pot and lifted it by the trunk the roots were coiled so I pulled them apart and added 6" of soil to the bottom of the pot and replaced the rootmass:

Is this not the happiest flare you have seen haha minus the small scar it gets lots of oxygen you can even stick a pinki under the trunk as if it grew over a rock or something but it formed a perfect flare that oxygen can get under:

It has been 6 years since I acquired this tree, and 4 years since my last post about it. The last few years it spent its life in a 15 gallon tub because I could not come up with a place to plant it. Well I have decided to move from MA to FL and learn a whole new biodiversity. I can not bring my tree with me so I decided to plant it on my fathers property out by the tree line. I will return to prune it every few years!

Thank you. Makes me kind of sad knowing I left this tree behind and I can not regularly see it anymore. On a positive note I managed to uproot a small Wych elm before I fled Massachusetts last year haha, it was in the autumn and do to the stress it dropped its leaves early after potting it. I have tried several times to transplant a Wych elm over the last decade with no success but I think I am close this time! I have been babying this tree for the last 8 months, it stays inside with me in climate control and I make sure it never dries out for longer than 1 day. The top was cut last year as soon as I uprooted it which may not have been a good idea but I never learn...I will wait a few years before I re-cut and attempt a graft. It really does not get much light indoors where I have it, but for the last 6 months on average of 4 days a week I put it outside for the day in the direct Florida sunlight after watering it. I can tell it is 100% alive all the way to the top bud, they do not roll off the stem, the cut on the top is not dried out and I can see the bark just starting to roll over. The trunk itself is expanding, I can see it is GREEN in the vertical crack lines...but the buds will not open and I am getting impatient! What can I do to accelerate the success? More sun? Nutrients? Humidity? I need some seasoned advice please